Baby girl stops crying when her big sister, who is blind, sings for her

Sadaya Paige, 12, has performed a duet with Kelly Clarkson in front of thousands, but these days, she mostly cares about performing for an audience of one — her new baby sister, Alani.

Last week, their mother, Dora, posted a video of Sadaya singing to Alani while feeding her a bottle. Surrounded by a menagerie of stuffed animals, Sadaya softly sings a heartfelt and astonishingly mature rendition of Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."

Sadaya has been blind since birth,

Having a baby sister is "a dream come true," Sadaya tells TODAY.com.

Sadaya sings to her sister “every chance that she gets, and she knows that her voice soothes baby Alani,” says Dora. “She stops crying almost instantly when she hears her.”

The journey from Sadaya's diagnosis at birth to figuring out how to help her thrive was a long one for her mother, which is why this sibling bond feels even more sweet.

A surprising diagnosis

Less than 24 hours after giving birth to Sadaya, Dora, a single mother, spotted something unusual.

"I noticed that every time Sadaya blinked, the only part of her eyes that I would see would be the white part," Dora tells TODAY.com. "Her eyes would just spin around uncontrollably."

When Dora asked the nurse on duty if this was normal, the nurse observed Sadaya, then "snatched" her away, Dora says. Within minutes, the doctor arrived with a team of more than a dozen specialists, and they put Sadaya through a battery of tests.

They determined that Sadaya has septo-optic dysplasia; the nerve connecting her brain to her eyes was underdeveloped, rendering her completely blind in both eyes. Sadaya also has several other serious health challenges, and she has been on multiple medications since birth.

"If at any time she is sick with a fever, with vomiting, I have to rush her to the ER every single time so that they can provide her with what they call 'stress dosing.' Because without the medication in her system, it can be fatal," Dora explains. "We've had over two dozen hospital stays throughout the course of her lifespan."

Taking singing seriously

Dora soon recognized that her daughter had a natural talent.

When Sadaya was 3, Dora taught her to play "Happy Birthday" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on a toddler kittycat piano. By the time Sadaya turned 5, she could easily pick up a melody someone was singing and match it on the piano.

Dora started an Instagram account for her daughter around the time that she began singing. "Initially, I started the Instagram account to be able to connect with other families who had children with disabilities because I didn't have a support system," Dora says. "Over time, the platform just got noticed."

Sadaya continued to sing around the house and at school; then, famed vocal coach Cheryl Porter heard her sing on social media.

Porter flew the mom and daughter to Chicago so she could work with her for a week in 2022. Prior to the trip, Sadaya "didn't have a lot of confidence," Dora says. Since then, she's studied music intensely.

In 2023, Sadaya was asked to be a guest on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," which led to Kelly inviting the girl to perform with her in Las Vegas.

In Aug. 2023, Sadaya, guided by Dora, walked on to a Las Vegas stage to sing Andra Day's "Rise Up" with Kelly. "You broke my heart in all the most amazing ways," said Kelly at the concert.

"I love being on stage!" Sadaya says enthusiastically about the experience.

Sisters forever

Dora and Sadaya are thrilled that baby Alani is here, but Dora's second pregnancy had many emotional complications.

This time around, Dora had a partner, TJ, who was there for her every step of the way. "Not only did he accept my daughter," says Dora, "but he accepted my daughter with special needs."

But Dora could not stop wondering throughout her pregnancy if her second daughter would be healthy.

When Alani was born, they put her on her mom's stomach and "I instantly started sobbing because she looked at me," Dora says. "And her eyes tracked me almost instantly." Alani met her father's eyes as well.

"It was just a perfect delivery, and I was so thankful," Dora says.

Sadaya is absolutely delighted to have a baby sister. "I didn't expect her to be so tiny," she says, "but she's absolutely precious."

Big plans for Sadaya the singer

Sadaya has big plans for her future.

"I wanna go on 'The Voice' or 'America's Got Talent,'" says the almost 13-year-old. She says she "definitely" wants to work with John Legend because "he seems really nice, and I think he'd be a really good coach." In fact, Legend was nice enough to "heart" a video of Sadaya singing his song, "All of Me," on social media.

In the meantime, Sadaya will be spending lots of time with Alani and looks forward to the day she's big enough to play dolls. "We have been sisters forever, it feels like," she says.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com